The 20 Happiest Jobs In America

Here's a good place to start. We worked with CareerBliss, an online jobs database, to find the jobs with the happiest employees in America. To come up with the ranking, CareerBliss examined 57,000 employee evaluations across more than 450 different job titles.

The final measure of job satisfaction, which CareerBliss calls a "bliss score," is given on a scale of one to five (one being the least happy and five the most). The bliss scores are based on eight factors: work-life balance; relationship with coworkers; work environment; job resources; compensation; growth opportunities; company culture; and daily tasks.

Overall, among the positions that ranked as the happiest in the nation, employees rate their bosses and colleagues as the best part of their jobs. They also give high marks to job freedom, which generally refers to the amount of flexibility employees have in how, when, and where they get their work done. Concrete factors like human resources and compensation get more lukewarm reviews.

The jobs aren't necessarily what you'd expect, and they're certainly not the highest paying. But for one reason or another, employees love them anyway.

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20. General manager (retail)

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Bliss score: 3.825 Average salary: $65,400 General managers give the highest marks to the people they work with and the freedom their job provides.

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19. IT consultant

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Bliss score: 3.834 Average salary: $77,500 For IT consultants, the best parts of the job are their bosses and colleagues, followed by the amount of freedom and flexibility they have at work.

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18. Property manager

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Bliss score: 3.842 Average salary: $46,800 Colleagues top the list of perks for property managers, followed by job freedom and flexibility.

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17. Network engineer

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Bliss score: 3.845 Average salary: $85,500 Network engineers give high marks to their coworkers, their bosses, and the flexibility of their work.

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16. Finance manager

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Bliss score: 3.849 Average salary: $64,100 Finance managers love how flexible their work is and are equally fond of the people they work with.

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15. Designer

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Bliss score: 3.849 Average salary: $65,900 The coworkers of designers get the best reviews of any on our list. Work freedom and work setting also score well.

4. Loan officer

Bliss score: 3.954 Average salary: $54,200 Loan officers are big fans of the people they work with, the freedom they have in getting work done, the job support they receive, and their overall rewards and compensation.

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3. Realtor

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Bliss score: 4.029 Average salary: $53,800 Company culture scores well for realtors, as does the flexibility of doing their work. They also like their colleagues, bosses, and job support options.

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2. QA Analyst

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Bliss score: 4.060 Average salary: $58,000 Six of the eight job satisfaction factors score a four or higher for QA analysts. Among the top-ranked ones are colleagues, bosses, and work freedom.

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1. Research/teaching assistant

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Bliss score: 4.125 Average salary: $33,600 Our happiest job by a longshot is research/teaching assistants. Though these employees aren't paid much, they love everything from the people they work with to their organizational culture and work freedom.